To many Zimbabweans, a film starring an actor who is by any means connected to the country is worth watching. A Quiet Place: Day One earns the right by featuring Takunda Khumalo as Osahar. The young actor’s name is a double draw by its beautiful joining of a Shona first name and Ndebele surname. By itself, the certified horror film earns credit for being a scary movie with a heart of gold.
Quiet Place: Day One can be summed up as a film that tells the story of a terminally ill young woman who in the midst of a disastrous alien invasion and possible end of the world scenario, sets out on a quest to find the "last slice of pizza to ever exist". While at it she manages to rescue two stranded children from immediate danger and saves one stranger from certain demise.
The film directed by Michael Sarnoski is the third instalment in the franchise that debuted in 2018. It stars Lupita Nyong’o as Samira (Sam) a cancer-stricken patient at a hospice, being taken care of by a nurse Rueben (Alex Wolff). Together with other patients, they go out for a marionette show in the city where Sam encounters the boy Osahar (Takunda Khumalo) with his father Henri (Djimon Hounsou).
On their way back from the show a cataclysmic disaster strikes in which the group is dispersed and the nurse meets a gruesome fate. Sam is discovered by a stranger, Eric (Joseph Quinn) who stumbles upon her by chance while following her cat. Eric, a foreigner who came from Europe to study law in New York City, decides to follow Sam without being invited despite her protests.
The film was preceded by A Quiet Place II which was released 3 years before the current one in order to flesh out the first instalment also released three years before.
In the first film which is set in the countryside, there is a strong emphasis on survival under unbearable conditions. The characters are preoccupied with how to escape, avoid, evade, and sometimes push back against the messenger of death. Consumed by their fear of death, they selflessly look out for each other in order to save and protect one another. Utter dominance by their nemesis forces them to adhere to an unnatural strict code of silence in every activity. The third film is set in New York City and begins by defining the place according to its noise levels whose measurement is compared to a continuous scream. Any foreigner who has experienced the subway would readily acknowledge that. The city becomes quiet when it is invaded by a marauding species of blind alien creatures that can only locate their human prey when they make or trigger a sound.
Usually, heroes are mentally fit and physically strong. Their role is to rescue the feeble and weak while remaining invulnerable in their quest to save the world. Contrary to expectations the hero of this film is frail and sometimes needs a shoulder to lean on. In a way, the film is about finding something to die for.
Roman legend has it that gladiators who were doomed to die in a battle to entertain the Emperor and the masses would greet the Emperor with the statement “those who are about to die salute you.” In some accounts, the Emperor is credited with responding in Latin “Avete vos!” (Fare you well!)
In his brief screen time, Osahar’s faultless performance brings the voice of innocence. His curiosity intrudes into the bleak outlook of Sam’s life as they bond over her ‘emotional support’ cat. Despite the restraining order from his father. Sam welcomes the boy’s attention. The moment foreshadows the future when boy and cat are warmly reunited on the rescue boat.
Sam is in a similar situation with Eleanor Bennett, Chipo Chung’s character in the Hulu series Black Cake. Both characters are protagonists who are terminally ill. While Mrs Bennett seeks redemption through confession of her past deception and misrepresentation, Sam finds hers through sacrificing her life for the good of another. Impending death influences their decisions as they overcome stigma and fear of death.
Another effect of impending doom is revealed when Sam declares that she is no longer a writer and Eric the aspiring law student realises he can no longer fulfill his ambition, “the one thing I was supposed to do.’’ Whilst the latter feels that their plans are being aborted, the former transcends their vocation.
On that fateful day, sitting in the dark, surrounded by destruction and lurking danger they both scream into the rumbling thunder to avoid detection. Temporarily illuminated by the preceding flash of lightning, their tout facial skin and dark orifice of their open mouths uncannily mirror Edvard Munch’s famous painting ‘The Scream’. Unlike the expression of terror typical in the genre, it is a cathartic expression that many viewers resonate with.
It turns out that the quest for a slice of pizza was never simply a craving to satisfy a gourmet desire. Although at one point she calls it ‘just a pizza’ it is later revealed to be the culinary embodiment of Sam’s close relationship with her father and the beautiful memories of their time together.
When Eric understands why the pizza was so important to his accidental acquaintance, he makes her promise not to die "Not before we get pizza’’ At this point the protagonist’s father who is only seen in a photograph becomes a large part of the story without even playing one scene. Eventually Eric does deliver on the promise to get the pizza although it is not the original Patsy’s. As she takes a bite Sam’s eyes well with tears which could be connected to the father daughter love that she yearns for, but could also be a response to the empathy and kind gesture from her new acquaintance.
The first instalment of the trilogy is overwhelmingly about the fear of death. In the second instalment there is a temporary triumph over a previously invincible nemesis, the messenger of death. The latest film transcends death.
In the end, Sam facing the alien monsters that threaten her material existence are not unlike the cancer that afflicts her body. Whilst on the rescue boat, Henri reassures Eric and the cat “You’re safe,” Sam is back in alien-infested midtown happily and fearlessly striding up the street. She owns the moment in appreciation of life and yet like a gladiator unflinching in the face of death. Knowing her moment, she stands in the middle of the street and summons the monsters to a fatal confrontation.
Avete vos!
*Nyadzombe Nyampenza is an art critic, photographer, and conceptual artist. In 2023 he was the NAMA recepient for outstanding journalist (Print). He was awarded second prize at the Zimbabwe Annual Art Exhibition (2016), and represented Zimbabwe at Bamako Encounters (Photography Biennale) in Mali (2015). Nyadzombe was the 2020 Fellow at Apex Art, in New York City. He is passionate about non-fiction creative writing and his ambition is to raise public awareness about visual arts from Zimbabwe through engaging, accessible, critical, and entertaining narratives.
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